Gone Hollywood July 1, 2018

The ESPN ribbon under the Yankee/Red Sox game I’m watching keeps flashing the breaking news that LeBron James has signed with the LA Lakers.

4 years, 154 million. Magic Johnson ain’t screwing around.

I scoffed at the endless speculation over this all during last season, and I’ll admit I’m a little surprised. Yeah, he has a house out here and is clearly interested in tv/movie production. But he’s already a national brand and coulda handled that from anywhere. I saw him staying in the east, or even with Cleveland for another year.

But there we are.

We’ll hear plenty how if he manages to win a championship with the current mostly young Laker team, after taking two other teams to championships previously.. how THIS PROVES IT!!!!! he’s better than Jordan, bla bla bla.

I’m sure we can assume a Golden State/LA Laker western conference playoff battle, perhaps even the conference final, I’m sure all the fans will go for that. And then, once LeBron and his new team manage to conquer Golden State, imagine the irony when they lose to the Celtics in the finals overall.

I don’t really root for any NBA team. I’ve followed a team here and there, and usually just like to watch good matchups during the regular season, but usually only wind up watching a lot of the playoffs. If LeBron can elevate the play of what already looked like a very promising group of young players on the Lakers, so be it.

But now, for the forseeable future, LA sports radio will be INSUFFERABLE.

They ALREADY only talk about the Lakers 24/7 all friggin’ year long. Something I learned quickly after moving out here – unlike Boston, a sports town where EVERY team is loved regardless of whether they win or lose, LA only truly loves the Lakers, and only when they win. When the Lakers lose, LA acts like it’s being cheated on. The separation/divorce has yet to happen, since the Lakers have managed to return from suckitude to competitiveness or greatness before spending too many years in the wilderness. Maybe they just did that again.

They’ll talk Dodgers too, just not as much as the Lakers. And again, they’ll talk Dodgers when the Dodgers win, so the past couple of years have seen lots of Dodger talk.

I saw the city lose two football teams and get two football teams back. There are still probably more Raiders fans than any other out here. USC/UCLA college football filled the void of the NFL absence quite nicely. The Rams’ success might get some bandwagon action. I keep telling people that the Chargers, the team no one wanted, will be the best bargain next year – they’re legit AFC title contenders, and they’re playing in a 30,000 seat venue at bargain prices. I know, they’re the Chargers, they invent ways to lose every week… but they went 9-3 down the stretch last year and drafted decently. And their division is weak.

If you really want to see LA teams that get no respect, look at the Clippers or the LA Kings. The Kings have won Stanley Cups and STILL don’t get the amount of chatter on sports radio that the Lakers & Dodgers get. They don’t even get it on the friggin radio station that carries their games, which fills the rest of the day with the usual AM talk fare.

I might be a Yankee fan, but Red Sox fans ferociously rooted for that team all through the decades of “the curse,” just like Pats fans, myself included, stuck by those guys through the false hope of the Grogan years to the absolute bottom of the 1-15 Rod Rust season. Boston remains one of the best sports towns in America, “Masshole” personalities and all.

Well, as I wrote this, the Yanks bats went to work on Price very nicely, hopefully this game will have a better outcome than last night’s blowout. And I assume it will, unless the Yankees go totally nuts and bring Sonny Gray in from the bullpen. HIYO!

Okay, that was a cheap shot. I’m sure he loves his mother and all.

But trust me, I’d love to see him dealt before the deadline with some prospects the Yanks don’t need for someone like DeGrom. I can dream, can’t I?

Also, Lebron James, if you’re reading this: If you REALLY want to be better than Jordan, click on the “buy my books” tab and put those babies into production, pronto. You can outdo the box office of Space Jam and those sports radio clowns will have no counter-argument.

Seriously, let’s do lunch!

You buy.

You got another 154 million to play with! Let’s start with the best pastrami in LA, if not the entire world. You’ll need to know stuff like this.